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takyon writes:

Seagate HAMRs out a roadmap for future hard drive recording tech

Seagate has set a course to deliver a 48TB disk drive in 2023 using its HAMR (heat-assisted magnetic recording) technology, doubling areal density every 30 months, meaning 100TB could be possible by 2025/26.

[...] Seagate will introduce its first HAMR drives in 2020. The chart [here], from an A3 Tech Live event in London, shows Seagate started developing its HAMR tech in 2016 and that a 20TB+ drive will be rolled out in 2020.

The last PMR drive appears in 2019/20 with 16TB capacity. Seagate's current highest-capacity drive is a 14TB Exos 3.5-inch product.

There is a forecast of areal density doubling every 2.5 years, and Seagate shows two other HAMR drive capacity points: 36TB in 2021/22 and 48TB in 2023/24. Capacity goes on increasing beyond 2025, with 100TB looking likely.

The firm makes the point that HAMR drives will be drop-in replacements for current PMR drives. Seagate will actually develop performance-optimised HAMR drives with MACH.2 multi-actuator technology – two read/write heads per platter – and capacity-optimised drives with shingled magnetic recording (SMR). These are shown in a [second chart].

Previously: AnandTech Interview With Seagate's CTO: New HDD Technologies Coming
Seagate HAMR Hard Drives Coming in a Year and a Half
Western Digital to Use Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording to Produce 40 TB HDDs by 2025
Seagate to Stay the Course With HAMR HDDs, Plans 20 TB by 2020, ~50 TB Before 2025

Original Submission